Andrew Coyne: Smith, Poilievre find someone to blame for their problems: immigrants

Andrew Coyne/The Globe and Mail: As of last July there were about 290,000 non-permanent residents in the province, or about 5.8 per cent of the population. If they were all expelled, or denied any access to social services, the province might spend perhaps $3-billion less – on a budget of $74-billion.

But they do not only consume social services. They also work – many of them in the social sector – and pay taxes on their income. So quite apart from the appalling spectacle of withdrawing essential services from a particularly vulnerable section of the population, it wouldn’t even save the province much money…